Fortnite Live is the Fyre festival of video game events

Submitted by Anders Batten on February 20, 2019 - 12:36pm

Attendees of the first ever Fortnite Live festival were disappointed with the event complaining about long lines and lackluster attractions. The two-day festival, which took place at the Norfolk showground near Norwich, was advertised as "a celebration of the Fortnite game organised by fans for fans." Hundreds of people have demanded refunds after paying $15 to $20 for unlimited wristbands.

Parents were surprised to learn that the event only featured a few fairground attractions with limited space for children to participate. Photos posted to social media showed a "cave experience" that was only a truck with a tarp draped over it. Other "attractions" included a single climbing wall for over 3,000 children, four go karts and archery for four people.

“Fortnite is all about hunting people down and killing them. I felt like doing that to the people who organised it," on woman told The Guardian"There would have been hell to pay if they had not agreed to pay refunds to people who bought wristbands.”

Shaun Lord, the owner of Exciting Events, who organised the festival, said he had refunded any who had asked but would not reveal how many people had actually demanded refunds. Lord also insisted in a statement that "the vast majority of children loved Fornite Live Norwich," after Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite threatened legal action.

Lord claims he has had to "shut down two pre-booked Fortnite Live events, with the immediate removal of all promotional communication from the public domain," due to the media frenzy over the event. The Fortnite Live Norwich Facebook page, Eventbrite listing and website have all since been removed.

Fortnite is a popular free-to-play battle royal game available on the Apple App Store and other platforms. It has a reported 200 million registered users worldwide, and has been compared to "video game crack" for children.